The Queensland Government is moving to mandate the taping of conversations in taxis to protect drivers and passengers.

Audio recordings will come into effect from next year.

The announcement follows a spate of assaults against taxi drivers in south-east Queensland in recent weeks.

A Gold Coast cabbie also stands accused of raping a female passenger last week.

Queensland Transport Minister Scott Emerson says the industry and the state privacy commissioner were consulted about the introduction of recordings.

"It does occur already in Western Australia and in other circumstances in New South Wales and South Australia," he said.

"There have been a number of cases [in Queensland] and particularly court cases that this has been mentioned in - that there wasn't enough evidence from the video recording to make a decision on what did happen."

The Minister says the Government will also introduce automatic taxi meters to stamp out rorting.

"It's not up to the driver's discretion," Mr Emerson said.

"The price you pay is already determined by the automated fare structure."

The Taxi Council Queensland supports both schemes but wants cab companies to have access to the audio recordings.

'Privacy invasion'

A prominent civil libertarian says there is no evidence to suggest recording conversations inside taxis will reduce violence or fare evasion.

The files would be wiped after 72 hours, but Michael Cope from the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties says it is still an invasion of privacy.

"We do not consider that collecting all that personal information is justified by settling a fair dispute," he said.

"I mean, no other business is entitled to collect all that information in order to sue you for a debt.

"Where is the evidence that taxi drivers have more problems collecting debt than any other business?"

But Peter Biagini from the Transport Workers Union says audio recordings could be crucial to prosecuting those responsible for violence against taxi drivers.

"It's not like a bus driver [where] usually there's witnesses," he said.

"In a cab there's usually only the cab driver and the person assaulting them."